Epilogue- Knox
The elevator climbs toward my floor, numbers blinking upward as Sheila beams at me.
“How many people do you want to invite?” she asks, practically vibrating. “Because half of New York is going to want in. Baby news outranks birthdays, weddings—everything.”
I chuckle. “Make a list. I’ll look it over.”
“Already on it.” She taps away on her iPad, her cheeks pink with excitement.
I brought her into work today to kill two birds with one stone.
First: I’m planning a surprise getaway for Isla.
Second: I’m arranging the party where we’ll finally share our baby news with the rest of the world.
Our family and my house staff already know. But Isla wanted to get past the three-month mark before telling anyone else.
She hit that two days ago.
So, yeah—my excitement is off the charts.
The elevator doors slide open onto our floor. I barely make it one foot into the hallway before Dorian’s voice cuts through.
“Knox. Office. Now.”
Great. Judging from the enraged look on his unshaved face, the loose tie, and ruffled shirt, something big is going down.
I shoot Sheila a look. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“No worries.” She nods and heads toward my office.
I fall in step with Dorian. “What the hell’s going on?”
“Tell you in a minute.”
We reach his office, which is trashed. There are documents everywhere and books on the floor.
“Did someone break in?” I look around, aghast. Of all of us, his office is usually the cleanest with nothing out of place.
“I did that.” He closes the door and places a weary hand on his head.
“What the fuck’s going on, Dorian?”
“It’s bad.”
“Define bad.”
He turns. “The press is running with a story that I caused Montgomery Astor’s heart attack.”
I blink. “What? That’s insane.”
“They’re saying I was sleeping with his ex-wife while she was still married to him.” His mouth flattens. “They’re making it sound like we were having an affair. They think because Montgomery died at home, he caught us together. Me with her.”
Montgomery Astor, New York’s beloved philanthropist and owner of two major charities, died last week. I wouldn’t have thought Dorian would have anything to do with them, especially the wife, who is forty years Montgomery’s junior and a former stripper.
With the press always breathing down his neck and his run-ins with Dad, that would be a scandal waiting to happen. Something Dorian would have avoided. That said, he’s the most secretive person I know, so I can’t say one way or another.
“Is any of it true?” I ask tentatively.
He grits his teeth. “Part of it.”
“Oh, fuck. Which part?”
“The sleeping-with-her part. But not while she was married. The fucking divorce had already been finalized. They’re saying we were having an affair for months.”
“Shit.”
“The fucking press don’t care about the truth. They care about the angle.”
I exhale slowly. “When did this news hit?” It must have just happened because I didn’t hear anything about it. Then again, I was with Isla. When I’m with her, the world could be burning down, and I wouldn’t know.
“Early this morning. I started damage control, but it’s already on the news.”
A shiver runs up my spine. “So, Dad knows?”
“Oh yeah, he knows. And this… it was the final fucking straw. He wouldn’t listen to me. He didn’t even care what I had to say because the press had pictures of me with Grace Astor. At her home.”
That is not good. “What does Dad want?”
Dorian lifts a brow. “The worst thing ever.”
“What?”
“Marriage.” He says the word like he’s reading a death sentence. “He thinks it will fix my image and make me look good. Respectable. Like you.”
“He can’t demand marriage.”
“He is, and he’s serious. Two big investors pulled their deals because of it, so the board are going crazy. I can’t even blame them this time. Dad said either I do it, or he’ll hire an outside source to take the COO job.”
I drag a chair out and drop into it. “What are you going to do?”
“He fucking wants me to marry one of the Harrington or Mayfield daughters,” he says flatly. “He practically handed me a catalog.”
Dad must have been pissed as fuck. Bill Harrington and John Mayfield are two of his closest friends.
They’re nice guys, and I understand why Dad would want a union with their family.
But their daughters are the worst kind of manipulative bitches known to man.
As bad as this situation is, I can’t imagine Dorian agreeing to that.
“What did you say to him?”
“I told him to go to hell.” His eyes flicker.
Yup. That’s what I thought. “And what did he say to that?”
“He said he’ll give me three weeks to get back to him with either an acceptance of the woman he’s picked for me or the name of a woman I intend to marry. And produce an heir with.”
My eyes nearly pop out of my head. “No way.”
“Oh yes.”
“What a fucking disaster.”
“But that’s not even the worst part.” He shoots me a maddening, psychotic smile.
My mouth falls open. “There’s more?”
“Look at this.” He swivels his computer screen toward me.
Lines of code run across it. I recognize the pattern immediately. “That’s a footprint. What’s this about?”
“I came across it when I was investigating John Monroe. Remember when I said it was as if someone made it easy for him to set you up?”
“Yeah. I remember.” And because we didn’t find anything else, I laid it to rest.
“The same code popped up when the cybersecurity team were tracking Chad’s PI. Our systems are tighter than ever, so we were all shocked when you got hacked.”
“It shouldn’t have been possible.”
“No. But it would be if someone came up with a way to lower our firewalls.” He points to the last instance of the code.
“That’s from last week. It was linked to my files and somehow connected to my phone.
All the pictures the press got were from messages, calls, and emails on my phone with details of when I was going to see Grace. ”
My scalp tightens. “Someone’s tracking us?”
“From the inside.” Dorian clenches his jaw. “For years.”
“Jesus. A mole?”
“Yes, a fucking mole,” he scoffs. “I got the code checked by an expert. They said it was some kind of cloaking program set to hide and activate at certain times. It was set up here at Vale Global.”
“Fuck. We need to fix this.” I ball my hands into fists.
“No, no. Me. Not you. This one’s on me.” For a second, the mask slips. The controlled, ruthless negotiator disappears. “Your shit is resolved. And you’ve done enough for me.”
Those words… He’s not just talking about now. He’s talking about everything. Right back to when we were boys and I used to take his punishments from our mother.
“I have to do something.”
“No, Knox. You have a family now.” His voice is firm and piercing. “My life just went to hell. This person fucked with me to try and destroy me. I’m not letting them get away with it.”
“What are you planning?”
“First, I’ll find my own damn wife. No one is taking my position. I’m not giving Dad or the fucking board that power. Second, I’m going to find and kill the piece of shit who’s spying on us.”
“At least let me know if you need me.” I study him—the set of his jaw, the calculation in his eyes, the weight he’s determined to carry alone.
“Sure. But this shit?” His stare sharpens. “It ends here with me.”
His eyes harden, and something inside me settles. Dorian has already slipped into the darkness he hides so well.
They called me the monster, but people never knew my brother was so much worse than me.
And I guess they’re about to find out.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed Knox and Isla’s wild love story. Up next is Dorian and Elodie’s story in Temporary Vows.